Good afternoon, Rapids, and welcome to WFHR's Playmakers.
Welcome to the show, everybody.
Seth and James here with you, we hope you're having a fantastic Friday afternoon.
Happy Friday.
It is.
Friday, everybody.
Happy Friday, Seth.
Woo.
We are going to have some fun today, maybe.
Some Friday show.
We're at the end of the week.
We're like trying to get the energy.
Yeah, Friday, yeah.
Woo.
But they didn't hit me.
Oh, it's the last hour of the week.
That's true.
Hey, that's right.
Sort of.
I put in tons of hours off there.
But that's for the audience.
Neither here nor there.
Yes.
Yes.
We're going to have some fun today, everybody.
At 5.30, we're going to take a break.
We'll come back and we're going to spend some time.
The rest of the show, really, I'd like to.
We'll see how it plays out.
We'll be talking about Mo Hill.
Yes.
We're going to spend some time celebrating Mo Hill.
Looking forward to that.
Mo, of course, being celebrated tonight at Winter Field, get to the ballpark if you haven't
already got tickets.
Get your tickets at northwoodsleg.com.
This is going to be one of the more legendary memorable nights at Winter Field in that team's
history period.
Absolutely.
They have never retired a number before as Seth mentioned last Wednesday.
It's crazy.
I did.
Kind of not a deep dive, but a medium dive.
If you can do such a thing.
Yeah.
It's not only Mo Hill's career here, but also I learned a whole bunch about the Rapids
twins that I did not know.
So I'm excited because I learned a whole bunch of stuff.
That was really cool.
We've got some special guests joining us.
We are able to, because our show is so big, we're able to land Pam.
We've got Pam joining us for the best guest here on the show.
The best guest we could have.
Yeah, exactly.
We're very excited about that.
Pam's going to join us at 5.30.
We'll talk with Pam a little bit.
She got CMO Carl did.
She actually went and hunted down a flyer or a season retrospective or a teaser for
the year kind of thing.
And I actually looked through it the whole thing.
It was fun.
Oh my gosh.
1978 is when it was for the next 78 season.
So we'll be talking about that.
We'll certainly be talking Raptors around that time too.
And we've been talking a lot of baseball today because the All-Star game is right around
the corner next week.
And not only do I have some stats of the show for you guys that I think are going to
be kind of fun.
And I do want to get into why baseball managers wear uniforms and no other buddies.
That's a good one.
Coaches do.
That's a fascinating topic.
But two places to start today, Seth.
And we'll get to, oh, another one I want to get to with you.
You brought up watching an old All-Star game this morning.
Oh, yeah.
And we were in between segments on the morning show.
So I didn't have my full brain, not that I do right now anyway, but I didn't have my
full brain.
And the game you were talking about really stood out to me.
And I couldn't remember why.
And there is about, I want to say, two, three, now about three years ago, Tim Kirchen.
I think maybe the best mind to baseball.
Yeah.
He's a great writer.
He's just a very smart dude.
Yeah.
Overall, there's guys that are so much that know the game and independently, incredibly smart
about certain aspects of the game.
I think that if you're going to go to a baseball historian and you need somebody to be able
to cover the whole sport from the first pitch thrown to the season right now currently
going on, Tim Kirchen is the greatest of all time.
He is the Mickey Mantle of when it comes to this.
And I got to love him to hear that.
I really love him.
Yeah, right.
Just because Tim Kirchen, also greatest laugh in baseball, the greatest laugh in baseball.
So he came out with a great article that the all your baseball cards came to life the
night, 50 years ago, when 22 Hall of Famers played in an all-star game for the ages.
It's a beautifully written article.
It is poetry.
And it is also just incredible stats and details about this game that you were referencing.
Yeah.
It was the 71 all-star game and it was at Tiger Stadium and Detroit, then the old Tiger
Stadium for people who remember.
It had some really odd dimensions.
So it was a hitter's park to be sure.
And the first thing, so when I start watching the broadcast and first of all, it's called
by the great Kurt Gowdy who was in the 60s and the 70s.
He was the NBC, the top guy.
He did all the baseball stuff.
You've heard his voice, people.
Even if you don't know who it is, you know what Kurt Gowdy's voice sounds like.
Highlight Reels.
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Tony Kubek was his color guy for that one.
Of course, the long time NBC, he played for the Yankees and then he was a long time color
commentator in NBC.
I didn't know he was a player.
Yes.
Yeah, he played with Bobby Richardson in the Yankees infield in the 60s.
But so he was there, young.
He was very young at that point, but he would spend a good 20 years there.
But and I just did this randomly.
I wasn't trying to figure anything out.
But then I saw the lineups, the starting lineups and it was absolutely remarkable.
Yeah, I was going to say he's like, yeah, Willie Mays leading off eventually 22 players
and managers from the game that would make it to Cooperstown 17 would win an MVP and
seven would earn a say young making this night, perhaps the greatest collection of talent
ever assembled on one field at one time in the history of baseball.
Amazing.
Joe Tory was there.
I was in awe.
Tory said I was leading the league and hitting, but I was still overwhelmed.
Yeah.
He batted third.
By the way, because I should leave that day.
No other All Star game has featured 20 Hall of Fame players.
Period.
No, there can't be.
Right.
Let all the names on the field at this one night, Rockaroo, Brooks Robinson, Louis Apricio.
Apricio?
One of my poppies favorites.
Frank Robinson, Carl Gistremsky, Reggie Jackson, Alcayline, Harmon Killabrew, Jim Palmer,
Johnny Bench, Willie McCovie, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Willie Starge, Lou Brock, Ron Santel,
Tom Siever, Steve Carlton, Ferguson Jenkins.
He pitched too.
Yeah.
Juan Marshall and our guy, Roberto Clemente, who the reason I knew about this game is because
it was his last All Star game.
Yep.
Yeah.
I believe it.
Yeah, it was.
I can't remember.
I was one of them.
Yeah.
And your managers, Earl Weaver, from the Orioles in Sparky Anderson, from the Reds, two of
the best ever to the best all-time managers right there.
Even the managers were memorable.
Yeah.
Exactly.
And I got to love Sparky Anderson.
I remember, of course, as Detroit Tiger, but he was the manager of the big red machine
in the 70s.
So the best was when the whole game, no expression really too much from Sparky.
Nope.
I would go wrong, and he loses mind.
One thing would go right, and it'd be so happy.
Yes.
And you'd love seeing Happy Sparky Anderson.
You loved it.
And then he had Earl Weaver, who was mostly even keel, but his some of his umpire arguments
were epic.
Yeah.
He was before Bobby Cox came along.
He was the manager.
It was a check-down.
Most in Major League Baseball history.
Oh, I remember that.
Yes.
Yes.
But Earl was great too.
I mean, off the field, they were just fat.
They were funny.
They were smart.
They were just really great.
Just awesome guys.
It was an amazing night.
And it was.
You can actually watch it online, and that is so exciting, I've watched it at least once
and a half.
I haven't finished both twice, but I haven't watched it once and a half.
Hank Aaron's only All-Star Game Homer.
In fact, his only All-Star Game extra base hit.
Whoa.
He had played in like 20 some All-Star games, and he never, all he hit was singles.
He did not have a good record in the All-Star game.
So he hit his only Homer, Clemente had a Homer, Kilibru hit one, Reggie Jackson hit one
that almost left the stadium.
That's probably one of the most famous home runs of all time.
And that's because the wind was, I mean, they hit it like in right center field.
If you hit it, even remotely it was gone, man, the wind just grabbed it and shh.
But still, awesome.
It's a fabulous watch, and it's surprising how fast it goes, considering how games are
these days.
Yeah.
It also, I think, is pretty unique to see, not only just a win-lasting on that game, the
talent on that field.
We just talked about and everything, but the age differences and the old, with the new,
which is so weird to say at this point in time and everything I understand.
But with the young guys like Reggie in there, with Harmon Kilibru, and Guy, I don't think
that we think of these guys in the same eras, awesome.
We don't.
This is one of the great things about this game, and this is the last thing I'll talk about,
otherwise I'll just keep going.
It's the same.
So Willie Mayes was 40 years old when he started this All-Star Game.
And the first inning, the picture he faced was Vita Blue, who was 21 years old.
Willie Mayes was his favorite player growing up, because they were in different leagues.
They never faced each other until that moment.
Gotta love this sport.
I really do.
That's so darn cool.
That is awesome.
That is awesome.
It's just fascinating.
I didn't know about how many Hall of Famers were in there, and then I'd like, oh, now
I think about it.
You bet.
I will send you that article.
That is great.
Yeah.
Great read.
It's such a great read.
Seth and James here with you.
We go from that All-Star game to talking about two other ones.
I did want to mention that, as we are gearing up for the All-Star game at Winterfield, or
not a Winterfield, but for the Northwoods league, that is coming up on the 22nd.
Keep that in mind, everybody, as we've got Raft or baseball leading right up to there,
and of course, after.
And we go from that one to the current All-Star game, where what we've been talking about really
the main headline from the All-Star game, the All-Star voting, I would say, is certainly
the snubs.
We talked a little bit about that, but it's who's going to start for these teams, and it
looks like Paul Schienz got the nod.
He did get the nod, and I can almost guarantee it was his pitching performance yesterday.
Yeah, yeah.
But did it.
He no hit the brewers for seven innings.
He struck out 11.
I mean, this kid is amazing.
Yeah.
He really is.
He really is.
I immediately told Seth to destroy the parts of last week's show where he said he wasn't
for Dan Bavilla's wayla.
He might be by the end of the season.
He might be.
He might be the Paul Schienz show, yeah.
And just to that point, he becomes just the fifth rookie pitcher to start the All-Star
game.
The first in nearly 30 years.
He joined today on NoMo in 95, and Fernando Vela's wayla in 1981.
Mark Fittorich in 76, and David Steinhaus in 62.
Oh, the bird.
I forgot about Mike Fittorich.
Oh, yes.
Congratulations to him.
Yes.
And very well deserved.
No one cares who's starting the American League.
For the American League.
No one cares.
Really crazy.
I'm looking it up, and I can't find out.
Nobody knows.
Nobody knows.
So we're going to get what we want here.
We're going to get Judd and him.
Judging you.
The first didn't hopefully.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That should be pretty cool.
Yeah.
Honestly, the more I thought about it afterwards, I was also mad at myself at, you know,
part of the, I didn't know going into the All-Star game that this and this was going
to happen last year or the year before or anything like that.
I was trying so hard to manufacture something that has to happen organically or it doesn't
mean as much.
And actually, I want to shout out the World Baseball Classic because seeing Otani and
Trout face off in that was must see television.
One of the greatest moments ever.
Was amazing.
Yeah.
And that was organic.
You couldn't plan that to happen.
There's certain things.
Obviously, you plan out baseball.
A good manager will do and everything.
But there's also just, hey, it fell out this way.
Yep.
So and so got out in the fourth inning that led to this, you know, you being up at this
point.
Yeah.
And here we are.
It's almost not as much fun that way.
And I was trying to take that part of the game.
I was trying so hard to give everybody what they wanted.
Okay.
We'll let Chris sale start.
And when Paul schemes come in and end of the night, so it's almost like he's starting
it.
You know, it was too much.
It's like a lot of things in sports, I think nowadays.
You know what?
Just let it breathe.
Just let it breathe.
I think part of the web frustrates me with the NFL is this is the rule with the rule
changes is why don't you give the players and the referees a chance to get used to what
a catch is before you change it again, right?
And let the point.
And I don't know.
Maybe the fans, the whole reason you guys were able to do this for a while.
You're playing able to play a kids game for thousands of dollars because they're selling
out the the bucks in order to watch you.
Exactly.
Otherwise, you're not doing this.
We have not talked nearly enough about the anti-trust suit that the NFL has going to
have to eat and how they are just and they're just sitting there, uh, well, I don't agree
with this.
Well, of course you don't.
Well, that is shocking.
Paul.
That is shocking.
Mr.
Goodell.
You don't agree with this.
Wow.
I'm telling you.
Um, uh, the, uh, when I first, uh, got a good paycheck, I, I did a couple of things and
I made sure that certain things were taken care of as far as bills and all that.
Sure.
Sunday ticket.
I love the red zone.
I love all of that stuff.
So I'm like, uh, let me look at this.
Oh, no, my, my, my last name is not, is not Gates.
My last name is not jobs.
Oh, I can't afford that.
No.
Please tell me who can afford that.
I'm being very genuine right now.
There's no joke in going on right now.
How can anybody out there that is not a business, like a business I could see making the investment
it, especially if you're a bar with more than two people in, right?
Yeah.
Absolutely.
I think it's actually a very smart investment and you can make your money back pretty easy
and stuff.
But if it is just you, how does any one person out there, please call up if you actually
have the NFL Sunday ticket, seven, one, five, four, two, four, twenty, six hundred.
And how you're able to afford that, right?
I, I'm being very genuine right now because I make a good paycheck and I look at that.
No way, man.
Ah, nah.
Now I'll catch the highlights.
Yeah, right.
That's the highlights.
Well, and, and well, I think Kevin was, but we talked about this with Kevin like a couple
weeks ago about the whole football thing because they got, I mean, they, so many people are
hooked seriously that they are willing to show out that kind of money.
And I'm like, can you even get the value?
Well, that's, I mean, you can't watch all the games at the same time.
I mean, yeah, you can flip between, you know, things, but are you getting the, I mean,
the red zone is cool.
Baseball is doing something similar now beginning, which I like because I like to see all
cut different kinds of game at the same time.
But they don't charge with the NFL does not even close.
So yeah, well, and then, and then it comes out that the NFL could have done the
best cheaper with ESPN, like ESPN was like, well, we'll charge 70 bucks.
We're going to charge 70 bucks for it.
And NFL was like, ah, no, we want to go with the guys that are charging 300.
Yeah.
So on a principle matter, and especially within a Vell fans, because while baseball fans
and hockey fans have their traditions, basketball fans have some football fans have one strong
tradition of, we're going to, we'll black out our own team.
Yes.
We'll, we'll be fine with that.
We will, we will stand on these things or some, it's hard to what I marvel that when
the NFL became the big dog, like, wow, they did this with a fan base that could be kind
of like, you know, be grudging with their loyalties.
And if they're going to, and I mean loyalties to the NFL, not to, uh, their teams, right?
I know.
And yet they became the big dog.
Well, that's pretty cool.
And then it became, oh, it's not just that.
It's not just the core NFL fans, like a lot of us have been for our whole lives.
It's the people that are jumping on now.
And that, that fan base is what's key, keyng up a lot of this, not, not all of it,
but a lot.
No, no.
And, and, and you're so right.
And, you know, I, I remember a man watching football games back in the 80s and you'd hear,
because they had a blackout policy back then where if they didn't sell out the game,
they would, the local market couldn't watch the game on TV.
Yeah.
And you'd have like businesses buying up blocks of tickets so they could show it.
Yeah.
Can you imagine that these days?
That's never a problem anymore.
No.
No.
I mean Jacksonville.
Right.
Right.
Maybe not Carolina this year.
But you know what I mean.
You know what I'm grateful for.
Yeah, exactly.
I, uh, Carolina, I feel so bad about this.
They are the only, well, one of the only teams in sports that I root for, uh, root against
I mean, uh, because of their owner.
Oh, I, I don't, I don't do that really, uh, like I did it with the Clippers.
I did do it with the Clippers because obviously he was a different type of animal.
He was evil.
He was dark.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Uh, earning an Emmy, uh, playing him, uh, Jay, you know, because he's done a kill it
on that show.
Oh, man.
Um, it's a rough role to play.
Rough role.
But as Ed O'Neill apparently has been killed in it and a little bit, I've seen, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, good for him.
Um, but, uh, when it comes to, uh, David, like I, I know, no, man, that guy's wrong.
That guy's wrong for the NFL.
He's right.
I don't.
He's some wrong with that guy.
Certain people should not get to have the privilege of owning a team no matter how much
money you offer.
And I know that's ridiculous.
Stop business.
That's not American.
Uh, and I just, you should have some class as other owners.
And I look what I'm talking about, though, the, this is the ownership group that includes
Jerry Jones.
I'll stop.
I'll stop.
Oh, my God.
Dude, what do you think is in the 60s?
Yeah.
What's wrong with that?
That I would say most of them at least had something that you know, they weren't, they
weren't terrible.
I mean, they weren't to pass either, but not like today.
Oh, man.
I just really saw where I was going with that.
Oh, my God.
When did the world get run by mediocre billionaires?
Seriously?
Yes.
What happened?
What happened?
How did these people that got these millions be, get there?
Because half the decisions, as soon as they get a team, they're idiots.
They lose their minds.
Complete idiots.
Yeah.
Doing the, they all do the same thing.
Yeah.
They trade half of their draft, draft picks for a big name and not just in basketball or
football, but in all sports, they do this.
Yes.
They get the team and like, whoa.
Let's go ahead and sell all that.
Come on, Steve.
Come on.
What's going on with the meds?
Come on.
Name me one time it has worked.
One time.
Never.
I can't even think of it, man.
There's none time that it works and they keep doing the same thing.
These billionaires.
They just learned.
They're like Hollywood.
They never learned.
Every one of these guys became a billionaire and watched Brewster's Millions and like just
immediately, that's what I'm doing.
That's what I'm doing.
That's what I'm doing.
I'm going to get rid of all this money.
It didn't watch like how the movie really wraps up or anything, but it's watched like
the core or watched a cliff notes version of the movie.
Yeah.
I didn't see it.
Not break and we get to our celebration of Mo Hill.
I got a couple of stats on the show for you, ever.
Nice.
First up, one that I want to thank Dan Patrick for.
He was interviewing Greg Maddox a while back and in the interview, it came up a couple
of interesting.
I really watched it just because in it, I saw that Greg Maddox said the most pure hitter
he ever faced.
He's like, oh, I'm going to find this out.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tony Guit.
Not supposed to.
Wow.
What a shocker.
Yeah.
What he said.
It's true though.
That pure Greg Maddox fashion is Tony Gwyn, the most pure hitter ever I ever faced.
He never swing at a ball that he didn't hit and I was like, oh, oh, I didn't think about
that.
Yeah.
Not wasting your swing.
Yeah.
Like sure, you would get him on a called strike or something like that, but he wasn't
going to waste that swing and I hadn't thought much about that and I thought that was kind
of unique to Tony.
You need two hitters in general and that.
That was kind of a cool thought.
All you need to do is go to his baseball reference page and see how many times he struck
out.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was hardly, I mean, the man was, I mean, and I'm not saying that he was like, he had
the talent, of course, he had the eye and everything, but do you know how hard that
man worked?
Yeah.
Every single day on his hitting, there was no act just like Ted Williams.
There's no accident why he was so good.
He worked hard at it.
It's amazing to think of these guys that were a pitcher of Greg Madisys who was the arguably
one of the greatest, not arguably one of the greatest mine pitchers of all time, probably
one of the smartest of all time.
He was brilliant on the mound.
He was afraid of facing Tony Gwynn.
He couldn't figure him out.
He said what he said about Tony Gwynn was it wasn't about getting him out.
It was about getting him to single.
Let's just get him to single that's it.
It's the equivalent of I'm facing Michael Jordan.
Just let him have 40 or 50.
Let's shut down Scotty.
Let's shut down Bill Cartwright.
It's kind of that because he said, I was worried about, I get Tony on bass and I got to
worry about Ken Kemmon and he coming up and he's talking about it there.
It was a great interview.
It was a really great conversation.
In that interview came up not only the Greg Madisys of course is a World Series winner
and a Hall of Famer, but Greg Madisys went 11 for 14 on stolen bases in his career.
Really?
Madisys was the oldest MLB pitcher to ever steal a base, which is hilarious.
If you've ever watched Greg Madisys run, he was not fast at all.
He was slower and slow, but man there's this great thing where he came into home plate and
he did this move on the catcher and it's one of the greatest moves I've ever seen and
he was a pitcher that did this.
And he didn't even slide.
I think I'm going to slide a little bit, but he did a jump back kind of thing and then
he did a little tiptoe around and it was it's an amazing look it up, man.
It's so cool.
I've watched it in part because how much I love the stolen base and it's on a highlight
where I saw it at least it's on a highlight reel of greatest stolen bases and he's on
there.
He's the only pitcher on.
Of course.
I thought that was kind of an interesting stat and kind of cool, but my focus, my main
stat of the show is going to be one of the only times this season I believe on White
Suck.
Oh really?
Michael Kopeck, Michael Kopeck who has had a lot of hype in the farm system and building
up if you've been paying it to, if you're a White Suck fan so to all four of you out there.
Thank you for keeping with the team.
Thank you.
You're still something hanging on.
It's not as lonely for me with the rest of you, all three of you because we went down
a number as I said that.
Yeah.
Oh no.
But with him, he pitched an immaculate inning on July 10th.
He did?
Where of course for those don't know, three strikeouts on nine pitches in the top of
the ninth inning.
The first immaculate inning of the season.
So there's your, you know, some stats to that.
But Kopeck became the first White Suck pitcher to throw an immaculate inning in more than
a century.
What?
Yeah.
Really?
I was very taken.
Now that surprised me.
Very surprising.
I mean, Mike, Mark didn't do this, you know, burly or Jack Black or Black Jack or
all right.
Yeah, right.
I'm trying to think of fans.
Really?
Garcia or she's, I'm blanking on all the White Sucks pitch, a ton of gray pitchers.
No.
It's not too shocking.
But it was a little surprising just again for somebody that pays so much close attention
to it.
I don't expect a lot of people that, you know, you're not, not a whole ton of socks fans
out there.
But he's done.
He, the last pitcher to do this for the White Sucks, Sloppy Thurston.
Sloppy Thurston.
Yes.
Sloppy Thurston.
Oh, what a great nickname.
Hollis Sloppy by any other name, Thurston.
Yes.
Yes.
Oh, where have the nicknames gone?
That is a gorgeous nickname.
Wonderful pitcher.
And he did this back in the day, born in 1899, passed away in 1973, Sloppy did, and I could
not find the immaculating.
I looked for it.
Oh, that's okay.
They didn't have the records back then.
But hey, Sloppy Thurston, there's to you, man.
Nice career.
Nice career.
That's a good thing you did do that, Michael Kopeck stacked for the White Sucks, because he's
not going to be there much longer.
No, no.
Packed a lot of players won't be there much longer.
No.
The end of July, it's one of these things where, you know, part of the reason why I hate
my team being bad, it's because, even in a bad season, it used to feel like, well, these
are guys we can build.
Bring up the guys.
Yeah.
Yeah.
These are guys that we'll see.
Yeah.
Now, I do think you're not going to see them getting Rinno Sosa.
He's young talent.
Probably not.
I think that he'll stay.
He'll be ready that I can look forward to next year until they do travel and probably
trade them then.
And some of these guys, like Crockett and Fetty, yeah, Crochet and Fetty, that's going to
be a tough one.
Fetty, maybe.
Fetty's a bit of a journey, and he won't hurt as much, but I've been enjoying him this
season.
Yeah.
He's been very good.
Crockett's going to go.
Yeah.
He's been having such a great season, and you can get a haul for him if you trade with
the right thing.
Yeah.
This is the thing I can only hang on to because I don't want to see these guys go, but
they're going to go.
And they probably should.
Yeah.
The White Sox ain't winning.
Nothing.
No, not this year.
You're not next year.
No.
So get as much as you, but what I'm worried about is the same guys that have destroyed this
team that just three seasons ago were in the playoffs, were in the playoffs, and we had
a lot of hope for it.
Yeah.
And a lot of fan bases would love to have some of our talent.
And now they do.
And that is how it works.
The hard one.
And I think for a lot of White Sox fans, it's going to be Robert.
Yeah.
And he's almost guaranteed he's going to go some more.
Oh, absolutely.
Because he's a valuable commodity.
He's got like some time left before he becomes a free agent.
So but again, if they play their cards right, they could get some real prospects, some
real talent.
That's the only hope I can have with this is that they actually do a good job with these
trades and get a haul on each one of these guys.
And to me, here's another thing that I don't like the teams doing.
You see the Marlins do this a lot.
And I like the Marlins.
So I don't like seeing this happen.
They're the only Florida team I like to be honest with you.
I do like the Marlins.
When it comes to, okay, we're going to sell, we're, we're sellers.
And then you sell one guy.
No.
I want everything sold.
Yeah.
Get rid of everything.
Just do it.
Just do it and get all the picks you can and all the prospects you can.
And if you're going to start over, start over, don't put your toe in the water, die
vomit and cannonball into that water and trade it all.
Get a rid of it all.
I'm not going to be interested to see where jazz jizzam ends up because I can almost guarantee
he's going to be gone too.
That's huge.
I think he's going to be in a Philly uniform.
They are in need of a center fielder, that's one of their few weaknesses.
Yeah.
I see that happening.
I see Philly or Louis, Rob, Robert's going there, Philly is going to get one of them.
Or Atlanta is the other one because they need outfielders.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But anyway, we'll see.
We'll do the trade show closer to the trading deadline.
That'll be coming up everybody.
Yeah.
Right now, we'll get to our commercial break, take care of our partners.
And when we come back, we're going to be talking about Mo Hill.
We're going to do our celebration of Mo Hill, Pam will join us and hopefully a lot of you
will.
715-424-2600.
Call up and join the conversation.
Playmakers, proudly brought you by Quadipulse Printing, getting your words out here in
Rapids.
Welcome back everybody to WFHRs.
Playmakers.
Hope you all are having a great afternoon out there.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Got your host, James here.
We are joined by Seth Habhacker.
Good afternoon.
And Pam Hillke.
Hello, everyone.
Nice to have for joining us, Pam.
I really do appreciate it.
We want to send a big thank you to Quadipulse Printing, getting your words out here in Wisconsin's
Rapids.
Big thank you to them for sponsoring the hour.
We appreciate that.
We are looking forward to a great night tonight at Winterfield.
At 620, our pregame will kick off as the Raptors take on Lakeshore.
But one of the bigger headlines from this game is of course the Raptors celebrating
Mo Hill.
Northwoods league great.
And I want to talk with you both about him and celebrate him a little bit.
And Pam, you got to see Mo play.
Yes, I did.
Yes, when I was a youngster growing up.
You know, it was a big thing to get to the twins games and you know, we did that.
It was.
It was.
It was.
It was.
It was.
It was.
It was.
It was.
It was.
It was.
It was.
It was.
It was.
It was.
It was.
It was.
It was.
It was.
It was.
It was.
It was.
It was.
It was.
It was.
It was.
It was.
You know, parents and I.
Sometimes them right.
Other friends, you know, we go to the twins games.
Awesome.
I was wondering, you know, how big it was, how much of a you know, in town, we know when a Raptor
Game is going on.
Even if we were not paying attention necessarily or something like you're going to see a more
traffic near Winterfield, there's certain things.
There's just a poll to it and everything.
When the twins were in town and they were playing, that was a bit of, oh we're, we've got
to get to the ballpark.
There was a lot.
Well, with that.
Yeah, it seemed to be, especially on the promotion nights, like, okay, there was consolidated
paper night.
Yeah.
There was necco paper night, the tavern league night, labor night, or whatever.
And those were generally evenings where the companies gave away tickets, you know, free
tickets to their employees and then, you know, our neighbors worked at those places.
So they'd have tickets to hand out to their neighbors like us, you know, so we'd get
the comp tickets and get to the ballpark.
And I remember also, WFHR would have its own special evenings, you know, we'd give away
tickets for two, three weeks before, you know, for people to get in, you know, for admission,
you know, get your tickets at the station or, you know, get them at the gate.
I couldn't find out if either of you were able to or not.
But the games aired on any radio stations are like at WFHR or anything like that.
Yeah, I was looking in the actually that brochure that Pam had.
And there's a 1978, this was before this season, they released this stuff.
And it says, yep, right on WFHR in a nice, big old 70s picture of Terry steak.
Oh, is that awesome.
Yeah, there it is, right there.
Oh, there is that handsome devil.
There is that picture.
Oh, man.
That's great.
That's great.
That's a stash.
That's a stash right there.
God, he looks good.
Oh, my gosh.
They put WFHR132.
They forgot the zero.
Oh.
Oh.
Hey, they're happy.
They're happy.
They're happy.
They're the old school.
Not many of them are.
Not many of them are.
Frequency is at 132.
No.
No.
No, I'm sure.
Hopefully they were able to find us.
Tom Metcalf.
Yeah.
I don't know.
Did you know that he was a former big league?
Sure.
Yeah.
Sounds familiar.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm almost positive.
Yeah.
I know.
That's right.
Yep.
I believe he was a pitcher.
Pam got us on that one.
Somebody else out there kidding.
That's great.
You got that, Pam.
That's your points on that one.
That's right.
Right.
Right.
And speaking of, so Pam was nice enough to hunt down this flyer or this pamphlet that you found
from when you attended a game or Carl did?
Right.
No.
That would have been.
I must.
I don't know.
I don't know how.
I got this.
What are you waiting to find it?
Yeah.
Oh, that's right.
Yeah.
Makes sense.
Makes sense.
Someone went to a game.
Somebody went to a game.
Yeah.
I had the brochure here.
Yes.
The brochure is awesome.
It's really cool.
There were some things that were really fun about this.
The advertisements that were in there.
Oh, my God.
We're a lot of fun.
All the local businesses.
Yeah.
It's great.
It's so cool.
Also, I talked about the press box here in 1978.
The press box has been rewired and remodeled to accommodate the broadcast crew from WFHR Radio.
As well as any other crew's broadcasting to other cities in the Midwest League.
It really speaks to our history not only in this community, but at Witterfield.
Yeah.
And how long we've been broadcasting from there.
It's really unique and really cool.
Did I do remember?
Yeah.
Mulhill, you know, playing.
He was kind of a fan favorite.
And it always seems like whenever he was at the plate, we wanted him to hit home run.
Yeah.
Do they hit the home run?
Right.
I looked at the stats.
Yeah.
Led the league.
What was that?
You said, Seth, four times.
Four times in a row.
He led the league, the Midwest League in home runs.
Which is, if a guy's hitting like that, usually he's moving up to the next level.
The Minnesota twins were an A-ball team for the twins, obviously.
And you'd think about that.
And I was reading a little bit of the history of it.
And there might have been some racism involved with that too.
I was telling James earlier today that at the time the twins owner was Calvin Griffith,
the guy who moved it from Washington, D.C. to Minnesota.
And he was known, especially, he's come out recently.
Some of the old players have talked about it.
He was pretty darn racist.
He did not.
He treated his players of color very poorly.
One of the reasons Rod Crew left the twins to go to the angels was because of Calvin Griffith.
A lot of people left because of what he did.
He sold the team in 82, so his family is no longer a part of that.
But I wouldn't be surprised to find out if that had something to do with it.
I will add piggybacking on that George Brophy, who was the Midwest League scout.
Had it was kind of the gatekeeper in this.
So if it wasn't the owner, it was him that was definitely keeping Mo from this.
Now there is talk of Mo head trouble with a breaking ball.
True.
Triple A and double A hitter I've ever heard of in my life.
It doesn't make it to the banks, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's certainly a little bit of room on both sides here.
But it is overwhelming evidence to me on the race's front.
Right.
And it's not because I'm looking for that.
It's because I don't want to actually, I didn't want it to be that.
Right.
But I think what's more important to me is how Mo tweaks this and how Mo took this.
And we're granted at the time or how he feels now about it seems very similar.
But there were racial tendencies to this.
And when that's going on, you could see a lot of players or a lot of people handle themselves differently.
And the way they treat a community or the way they treat their situation or the way they even treat the game.
You couldn't tell from the way Mo did this.
Not the way he played the game, not the way he treated this community, not the way that he treated the fans.
And where they went low, he went high.
Very similar to some of his idols like Jackie Robinson and some other great players.
Right, Hank Aaron.
Hank Aaron is one of those guys I was going to say.
And I will say Mo did break a color barrier in North Carolina where he's originally from.
Wow.
He was the first African American player in their league out there.
So that was, that was noteworthy.
And it was something that he would have, you know, would have loved to be able to do for another team or anything like that.
So I do want to, I'm glad we got to that and got that as part of his story.
Right.
I didn't want to, I didn't want to end on that note.
No.
But I didn't want, I didn't want that brought up because that is part of the reason why the rafters are doing this.
Yes.
Not just because he had he been a great player and made it to the majors and done whatever he did.
This would still be happening.
Right.
But it's, it's in part because of hey, making things right.
It's a big part of what's being trying to be done right now.
Right.
Exactly.
And it's, it's pretty obvious that he is a very beloved person in this area.
Yeah.
And I was, I mean, doing the research I did today, I mean, it wasn't just him.
People knew who he was.
In fact, in 1999, the magazine baseball America voted him the, uh, the greatest Midwest player of all time.
It's incredible.
Midwest league player of all time.
And there was a lot of great players that came through the Midwest league.
I was just looking at the stats on the, on the brochure Pam had.
And I saw a name out Dave Stewart.
Why is that the Dave Stewart, you know, Oakland A's pitcher who won 20 games every year.
Why sure?
Not if it was.
Which is really cool.
I mean, he had a great year that year to the 1977.
Yeah.
Yeah, you were telling me those stats.
And it's pretty darn cool to think Dave Stewart played in this town.
We played in this area, you know, and everything.
It's Bo Hill, you know?
Yeah.
And boy, that would have been, uh, because Dave Stewart had one of the more intimidating stare downs in baseball.
That would have been pretty cool to see at a young age.
I'll see how that developed and everything.
There are some great stats.
There are some great parts of this too.
Pam, did you have anything that stood out to you?
Either about watching Mo or about from the brochure here or the stats that you saw?
No, I just wanted to make sure to give you a chance.
You know, he was noted because of his, he was up color.
Yeah.
As opposed to many of the other players on the team.
Right.
Well, I imagine even in this area at the time.
At the time, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, it wasn't a whole lot of fun.
I think people were everything.
Yeah.
One of the things that I did want to note, we want the audience.
If you watched Mr. Hill play, if you would like to call and talk about him, please feel free to.
Yes.
715-424-2600.
Well, we're talking about him right to the end of the show.
We got until top of the hour.
So we'd love to hear from you.
715-424-2600.
Listening on the Civic Media app, you are just a touch or two away.
And thank you for downloading the app.
One other kind of cool note I thought that you guys might like before we do go to break.
I did want to mention.
Mohill had a couple of things that he was known for, obviously with his hitting.
He had some real style to his at bat, some of those things.
And his iconic toothpick.
Oh.
Okay.
Further cementing Hill's iconic status within the league was his, uh, uh, uh, press,
particularly, uh, precedation.
His love of toothpicks.
Yes.
Of all of them.
Of all of them.
A predilection, I think is the word.
Predilection.
Thank you.
Quote, I remember that later on, UL Washington became known for always playing with a toothpick in his mouth.
But UL had nothing on Mohill.
Uh, uh, one time, Moh got hit in the head by a pitch and went down.
We ran out the dugout to go check on him and rolled him on his back.
And someone tried to take the toothpick out of his mouth and most said, don't touch it.
Oh, my gosh.
So I think a great line, but also he kept it in his mouth after he got hit by a pitch.
In the head.
Yeah, right.
He's in the head.
It's still kept the toothpick in his mouth.
Yeah, you could get injured.
You know, it could have stabbed me.
Oh, my goodness.
Uh, yeah, I could think of the amount of things.
The first thing that about was UL Washington, because he's like, he's only player I can think of that made it to the major.
And, and they were talking about it's a playoff game with her because he played for the Royals.
And it's, and he's like, kids, don't do this.
Yeah.
I don't know, put a toothpick in your mouth.
It's just my thing.
Okay.
Just don't, it's not, please don't do it.
In 2010, Hill was inducted into the Gaston County Sports Hall of Fame, because of his athletic exploits.
In 1964, graduate of Old High School, Highland High School.
He'll became a top professional baseball project last year before the major league draft began in 1965.
Some other notes of his career that I thought was listed.
It would be interesting to see what would have happened if you had been in the draft.
Yeah.
Just a very wonderful human being too.
By all rights and everything that he was able to do from this area.
I am sure he's in town.
We welcome him to Rapids.
Back to Rapids, I should say.
And, and wishing him a great fun night.
Looks like the weather's going to cooperate.
And I'm feeling a win tonight.
So I think that's going to be fun too.
That's great.
We're going to, we're looking forward to seeing how this one plays out.
And just less than an hour from now, everybody.
620, our pregame will kick off.
Andy will be taking over the airwaves here.
And our rafters, their boys, the summer will be on the airs.
They take on lakeshore.
Get to Winterfield if you can.
If you can't.
Well, maybe, maybe we can help you out.
Maybe we can give you some tickets, huh?
I mean, I think that's a fun way to celebrate Mr. Hill as well.
All right.
It's not only do I have five rafter tickets here, but I have five meal vouchers with them.
Go along with them and everything.
Free food, bud.
If you would like to play along, go ahead and give us a call and be the first caller at 715-424-2600-424-2600.
That's an extra point.
If you got to see Mr. Hill play, they don't know.
But we'll give these tickets away, Pam.
Thank you very much for joining us.
Oh, you're welcome.
It was a lot of fun.
That was a lot of fun.
Yes.
You did too good.
You're going to come back.
You'll be out.
You're going to have a segment just for you coming up.
That's what we do.
My point of view.
Pam remembers.
Pam remembers.
I was kidding, but now I think we actually are honest.
I think we might have something.
Thank you, Pam.
We appreciate you.
Oh, you're welcome.
We will take a quick time out.
Our final one of the show will come back and we'll have some more fun right here on Playmakers.
Brought to you by our good friends over at Quality Post Printing.
Getting your words out here in Wisconsin Rapids.
Welcome back, everybody.
To WFHR's Playmakers, Seth and James hanging out with you to the top of the hour.
Let's go.
Got a good 10 minutes left.
We're going to make sure to have some fun while we got you.
Yeah.
Feel free to call up and join the conversation.
715-424-2600.
Love to hear from you, everybody.
Especially if you had a chance to see Mr. Hill play.
Yeah.
We would love to.
Is this messing with you, bro?
No, I'm good.
The microphone.
Sorry about that.
No, it's good.
I was trying to do a two different ones.
No, that's fine.
So we've got a little bit of time here.
We'd love to talk about whatever you want to talk about.
Sports wise, everybody.
715-424-2600.
Anything going on with you?
What do you think is interesting?
I think it's fun to talk.
I got, you know, going through all the stuff I was going through
that I didn't know about the Midwest League
and the where it was when Rapids had a team and stuff.
So I didn't realize they were here for 20 years.
63 to 83.
Do you know who their last manager was?
Hmm.
Charlie Manual.
Whoa.
Wow.
Future manager of the Cleveland Indians
and one-of-world series managing the Philadelphia Phillies.
Oh, great.
2008.
Yeah, remember that.
Charlie Manual was, and he was,
if I remember, he came up with a twin stew when he was a player
if I remember correctly.
So, yeah.
That 08 Philly team was crazy.
Jimmy Rollins.
They had some personnel.
Ryan Howard.
Man, you remember, like, Cole Hamill?
At that time, Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard were two guys
that I thought, well, we'll talk about these guys for the next 40 years.
It's so weird to think of those guys that just like they're in the ether
and like, oh, I remember him.
Yeah.
He was huge at that time.
Jimmy Rollins is borderline.
Yeah.
Hall of Fame.
Him and Utley, Chase Utley.
Yeah.
What a double play combo, by the way.
Oh, man, those teams.
Nice teams.
Yeah.
They're very nice teams.
So, I do have this one that we can touch on set.
Okay.
Why exactly do baseball managers wear uniforms in the dugout?
See, now that was not always the case.
You go back and look at old pictures.
They wore suits and stuff like that.
I can't remember who the last manager who was.
But tell us, James, why do they wear uniforms now?
Because, by and large, they have to.
I mean, it's the rules of the game.
That's, of course, they have to.
No, no, no.
So, baseball managers are the only managers that actually do go out in the field to play.
When the game is, when the game is actually going on.
They're the only ones allowed to, I believe.
I believe you.
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah.
Basketball, football, hockey, all of these other sports.
They are on the sidelines.
They are on the sidelines to the whole game.
And that is the rule.
In fact, they are punished if they come onto the field often times.
Exactly.
Where in baseball, a manager, it's nothing to see a manager walk out to the dugout.
Yeah.
Walk out to the dugout.
To the mound, to the mound.
And in fact, it's, I started thinking more, because I just wanted to have something as kind of like some fun to wrap up a show one day with.
And I did have a listener ask, hey, I don't understand why this happens.
And so we kind of got the answer there pretty quickly for that.
But it did get me thinking about it.
And how, with all the changes to baseball and all the different things that I and a lot of fans kind of feel like,
well, we should probably stop doing this.
We don't need to do this anymore.
Or, oh, this is kind of, you know, it's past its time.
We need to evolve the sport.
Right.
I'm so happy this still exists.
And I'm so happy this is still a part of baseball.
And I can't think of a necessarily a reason or a way, a way, even, that they would ever get rid of it.
I think that we're always going to have the manager walk into the mound and that, that, that patience.
We, we, we want so much in life right now.
Not just our sports, but our meals, our gas, our entertainment, everything fast, fast, fast.
And I don't just want to fast.
I want it in a condensed amount of time with no commercials.
And I don't want any pause or just give it to me now.
Yeah.
I instant gratification.
Right.
Most of our favorite moments in sports involve time and patience.
Waiting for your team to get to out of the snap and walk up to the line and get there.
And they got 25 seconds to do it.
And in that, that 25 seconds, there's no action going on.
The game is not being played, but it is so exciting.
It's the fourth quarter.
This is the last play of the game.
Right.
They scored touchdown.
They win.
And all of his building, building, building to that.
Look at the defense.
This guy's moving over here now.
And all that's happening.
It's exciting.
And nothing in the ball is not in play.
Right.
Basketball.
You, the kids bring it down the court.
And you know that they've got to make this shot because he's only got 10 seconds.
And he's just dribbling and dribbling and dribbling.
Waiting for that last minute, last possible second.
Right.
To shoot the ball.
There are, I understand.
And I'm not a begrudging of us evolving with sports.
But I love that there are still some moments up.
Yep.
The Collins is going out to the mound.
He's taking them out.
Or he's going to talk to the pitcher.
Maybe he's taking them out.
Right.
I see that the manager's in the dugout on the phone.
Looks like he's going to pull this into the bullpen.
Right.
And I don't, I'm so glad that they still exist.
Right.
Think of them here, and I love that.
I, you know, I never thought about that, but think here's a great example of that.
Think of the moment right before Dennis Eckersley threw the ball to court.
Oh, yes.
Perfect example.
You know, right, he's holding the ball and everyone's still.
It's like for a second, everything is completely still.
And then he throws the ball.
And there's that split second where the ball is traveling to the home plate.
You don't know what's going to happen.
And then all of a sudden he hits the ball.
And oh my gosh, it's gone.
It's a whole run.
Oh my gosh, losing my mind.
Everyone is going crazy.
And it's all because of the anticipation, you know, of can he do it?
Can he not?
Can he run?
What'll happen if he hits the ball on the ground?
You know, something like that.
Every moment like this has something like that to build it up to that.
And that's why I think those are the ones we remember the most.
You know, like the quarterback waiting to the last possible second to throw the touchdown.
You know, he's going to get cream, but he's going to wait because he needs to wait.
And he just throw.
Yeah, that kind of stuff, you know.
There's some, just you say, just you saying that I immediately thought of a hundred different times
that happened to a quarterback I liked.
Right.
And they hung onto the ball just for that extra second.
Yep.
Took the massive hit and got the ball that got the touchdown up the first down and whatever it was.
I don't think we take enough pleasure in that in sports and take enough time to appreciate the pleasure in that in sports.
As much as we want our scores and our highlights, there is something to be said for some of that.
Now, all that being said, I have been one of the biggest cheers of baseball's changes.
I'm not a big fan of the whole extra innings putting a guy on second thing.
Okay.
That one, I'm not a huge fan of, but otherwise.
Maybe no time.
You gave me no time, man.
I just got to put the, okay, everyone is saying it wrong.
Okay, it's not a ghost runner.
We know what a ghost runner is from when we're growing up.
It's an invisible guy on the base, right?
Yeah.
We don't have enough people to play, right?
Yeah, yeah.
It's the zombie runner, okay?
We need to start calling it the zombie runner.
He has literally brought back from the dead because he's the guy that made the last out and they're eating before.
That's right.
And they put him on second.
I hate the zombie.
By the way, I hate it.
I hate it.
Yeah.
I want them to get rid of it.
Yeah.
They won't.
But I'm just one of those things that it's like, I'm with you.
I love most of the changes they've done.
Get rid of the zombie runner.
You're so right.
Get rid of the zombie runner.
Not only but what we need to be calling it.
But what we need to be getting rid of it.
But other than that, I'm a big fan of a lot of the changes they have made because I'm a...
Honestly, because I like the results.
Not because I like the time being shorter.
That part never bothered me.
The shorter time.
Cool.
I think that's good.
I think that's good if you can grow your sport.
What I think helps grow your sport is excitement.
Balls in play.
Yep.
And stone bases.
And we're seeing more and more of that.
Yeah, everybody likes a home run.
They don't want a whole game of home run strikeout.
Home run strikeout.
Nobody wants to strike out.
Home run strikeout.
Yeah.
Especially when you're not guaranteed that homework.
But you're guaranteed a lot of strikeouts.
No matter what baseball game you're watching nowadays.
Strikeouts are boring.
You're going to see strikeouts.
Yeah, they're boring.
I'm sorry.
Strikeouts are boring.
Unless it's like the last out.
It's like, you know, the top of the ninth or whatever it is.
Strikeouts are boring.
We want to see the ball in play.
We want to see guys running.
Okay.
Keep in mind, everybody.
This will be a last playmaker's until next Friday.
Yeah.
That's right.
We have no show on Monday and Wednesday due to the rafters 520 start times.
Yes.
That's right.
So we will, of course, give the airwaves to our rafters, which we're excited about.
Enjoy the boys the summer this weekend.
Everybody rafters, again, kicking off their pregame at 620.
They'll be at 620 tomorrow night's game as well.
And then on Sunday, a 350 start time, which will interfere with our original programming on Sunday night.
That's right.
We will not be having any new shows for you this Sunday.
Yeah.
We'll have some coming up for you.
Be listening for that.
And of course, a great week lineup of all of our shows next week.
Not just here, but on WIRI.
Encouraged as hanging out for that all week long.
And enjoy our weekend lineups.
And of course, join us for over the back fence tomorrow.
That's right.
I will be here.
Eleven the noon.
It's your call-in show.
Another call-in show.
We can call in with your items.
You're looking for items.
Yeah.
You want to talk some sports?
That's fine.
Yes.
Please tell me how it goes with Mo Hill tonight.
I'd love to hear about that.
Yes.
Yes.
Please.
Again, big congratulations to you.
A big tip of the baseball cap to Mr. Mo Hill.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
You've earned it.
Thank you, everybody.
Best listeners in radio.
Have a good weekend.
We'll talk to you soon in a later here at...
